Who Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that having died to sin, we might live to righteousness; by His WOUNDS YOU WERE HEALED.
1 Peter 2:24, LSB
Jesus was born to die on the Cross for our sins. This fact should give us pause. Let us ponder the meaning of the Cross. We shouldn’t just gloss over it and go right to the Resurrection, but it is easier to grasp the salvation promise and look forward to the return without ever truly pondering the Cross. It becomes a bit of jewelry or a decoration. Jesus took the curse of a tree for us and our sake. A virgin and a tree are how sin entered the world, and it is a virgin and a tree that brought upon us all creation from the beginning, the promise and hope of salvation. The curse of the tree that once was a sign of our hopeless fall becomes our hope for eternal life. Jesus bore all sin for all time, not so we would choose Him, but because He chose us. It is in this that we find our regeneration, our hope. We see the resurrection, but it is at great risk that we lose sight of the cross. As Moses led the people of Israel out of slavery toward the promised land with many signs and wonders of God, let us not forget, as they so often did, the God of our salvation that leads us to the promised eternal kingdom and life eternal.
Let us pray. I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger, and I ask you to protect me this day also from sin and every evil, that in all I do today, I may please you. For into your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all that is mine. Let your holy angel watch over me, that the wicked foe have no power over me. Amen.